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Public procurement of energy-efficient works, supplies and services

23 Marzo 2020

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Support provided to projects under the Intelligent Energy Europe II programme and Horizon 2020 Energy Efficiency

This report aims to provide an insight in the results achieved by projects supporting the uptake of public procurement of energy-efficient works, supplies and services, under the Intelligent Energy Europe II programme and the Horizon 2020 programme. This report is of interest to the European Commission's services, the direct beneficiaries of these projects, and stakeholders involved in energy-efficient public procurement such as the public authorities, public procurers, and suppliers, among many others.

In terms of impacts, and the assessed evidence, the projects managed to achieve 280 GWh/year of primary energy savings and 77,000 t CO2/year saved. At the same time, the projects provided training and capacity building to 12,117 procurement trainers, procurers, other staff members and decision makers of local, regional, and national authorities

Based upon the results of this study and the feedback received from the stakeholders, the following elements are important challenges for a new generation of projects targeting the public procurement of energy-efficient services, products and works:

Training and capacity building remain crucial, especially locally organised trainings and capacity building focusing on the promotion of centralized (joint) public procurement approaches. Training and capacity building should also better involve technical staff to stimulate a close cooperation between procurement officers and technical staff during the procurement process.Finally, training and capacity building should focus more on the development of soft skills and the governance management and restructuring in organisations.

Although already covered by past procurement projects, the following product categories could benefit from continued support: i) office building design, construction and management, ii) energy-efficient transport, iii) green electricity, iv) road design, construction and maintenance, and v) street lighting and traffic signals. Product categories that were less covered or not covered at all, and that could benefit from support through new projects are i) wastewater infrastructure, ii) food and catering services and iii) textiles.

Some respondents also suggested the use of more progressive, results oriented, targets per product category linking public procurement towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The use of public procurement as a strategic tool has the potential to address this remark

Finally, the digital transformation, and the emergence of e-procurement will create new challenges in terms of training and capacity building for those involved in public procurement at all levels.